Wow, it’s hard to believe it’s been almost a year since we jumped on a plane and flew halfway around the world to Tokyo, Japan followed by a 1,000 mile drive to our final destination, Kagoshima!
A lot has happened since then and we want to glorify what God is doing through our partnership by sharing some highlights with you… AND… to say THANK YOU for partnering with us in prayer and for the generosity of those who financially invested in our mission this year!
Your partnership in Kingdom building in Japan has allowed us to:
build COMMUNITY: settle in and make friends
Our house is now starting to feel like home. Chloe is fully adjusted to pre-school, is comfortable with speaking Japanese all the time and has made lots of friends. Ethan will be starting pre-school next year!
Joining our community association and participating in various events throughout the year has allowed us to connect and develop relationships and we look forward to deepening those relationships in the coming years.
One family in particular is our neighbors across the street. We’ve shared meals together. I help their teenage children with English. Their mother helps us prepare meals for our outreach feeding the homeless. And on occasion, they have watched Chloe and Ethan allowing us to have a much needed date night.
Sharing our lives with others, enables us to share Jesus.
1 Thessalonians 2:8
solidify OUTREACH: serve the community, partner with other organizations and create opportunities for our friends to volunteer with us
We held our first annual Go Local event, where we love on our community through a community project initiative. Inviting our friends to volunteer with us was a simple way to get to know each other and initiate conversations about God.
Six months ago we reached out to the Kagoshima Food Bank that lead us to starting Feeding Our Friends, an outreach to the homeless and those struggling to make ends meet. We drive into the city each Wednesday where we provide lunch and by the invite from a few of the people there, we share the Word of God. And we have two mothers in our local community volunteering to prep meals.
This past week, one of the gentleman from Feeding Our Friends, showed up to our home for church where he opened up about often questioning himself about what is his purpose in life. I so love and appreciate him being vulnerable.
I love seeing God on display as He transforms us. 1 Corinthians 3:7
plant a CHURCH: our home is an outpost of the church where we invite our friends to do life together and talk about God in a safe, comfortable space.
This summer, we welcomed friends from Nagoya and Tokyo. And we had our first short-term missionary stay with us for two months engaging with the other high schoolers, helping us with property clean up we had not managed to get to and prep for future outreach activities.
One of our visitors from Tokyo (a 19 year old we had never met before) joined us for church at our home. He is the grandson of one of our elderly neighbors we assist from time to time. He is a Christian and left in August to attend New Hope Christian College! He is on fire for the Lord. I am excited to see how God is going to use him. We will have the opportunity to meet his mother in December, who will be visiting her mother, our neighbor.
God's power in connecting us with others at the place and time He chooses is awe-inspiring Ephesians 2:10
VISION: looking ahead to 2019
Being completely vulnerable, right now… we are excited and a little anxious about the work in front of us. Finishing out the storage building for a new outreach ministry, welcoming a new full-time missionary while completely relying on God to meet our daily needs and the daily needs of another missionary we feel responsible for. We thank you in advance for your prayers and your continued generosity!
God has set before us great work. Together, we can change the world. John 14:12
Community:
We will continue extending ourselves to our friends deepening relationships and build new relationships as we live out our daily lives. One of those ways is through running. Each morning, while running, I extend greetings to every person I pass which has lead to making new friends. I feel a Run Group forming in our midst!
Outreach:
We will add a project to our 2nd Annual Go Local Event and continue with Feeding Our Friends Outreach.
We have been preparing our storage building for ministry and in January we are launching our English House Outreach, a tentmaking ministry using English as a tool to connect with school age children in conjunction with welcoming a full-time, long-term missionary who has a heart for reaching the youth in Japan. Raising funds for missions is a challenge and can be a stumbling block for many missionaries. We hope with this first English House we can create a sustainable discipleship platform inviting more missionaries to the mission field in Japan using their natural skill of English to launch more English Houses in neighboring cities to reach youth in our community. It will also allow for short-term missionaries to serve at our Camps we will offer during summer break.
Church:
The average church size in Japan is roughly 25 people. With our English House Outreach, our aim is start by building into the youth and engaging families, inviting them into relationship and community. Locally, our hope is to have a community of 25 to 30 people meeting at our home each week seeking to understand who God is and His rescue plan for our lives. Through video teaching we hope to reach many of our existing relationships in other cities.
To our friends in America, we wish you a Happy Thanksgiving! We hope for joy and rest for all of our friends around the world as you prepare for this Christmas Season!
Gratefully Yours,
Team Adams